Concert Review: 13,000 Fans Attend An Uproar At Comfort Dental Amphitheater

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Concert Review: 13,000 fans attend an Uproar at Comfort Dental Amphitheater

Posted on September 29, 2012

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by Tom Walsh

“13,000 strong”, so said KBPI’s Willie B. while standing on stage at Comfort Dental Amphitheater during the third Uproar Festival (or Infest as it’s called here in Denver). Willie was referring to the amount of people that turned out for this year’s Uproar Festival featuring P.O.D., Candlelight Red, Mindset Evolution, Adelitas Way, Staind, Godsmack, Shinedown and more. If you think about it that’s a pretty decent crowd for a Tuesday night.

Since Papa Roach had to bow out of this year’s Uproar Fest the main stage opening band went on a little later than they were supposed to, and since there was nobody on the main stage at the beginning of the show I’m guessing most of the crowd was either walking around the grounds or checking out the bands on the Ernie Ball stage because there were very few people hanging around inside the amphitheater.

Shinedown on stage at Uproar Festival in Englewood, CO

Those that were hanging around inside ended up being treated to a great set by Adelitas Way.

Compared with the four bands that Adelitas Way was sharing the main stage with they are relative newcomers but these guys have heart and opened the show with vigorous attitude and professionalism, and showed they can hold their own among the more well-known bands they were opening for. They had the crowd rocking to a mix of old tunes and songs off their brand new album “Homeschool Valedictorian”. Adelitas singer Rick DeJesus pulled out some tricks that most other singers use like shouting out “put your fist in the air”, “get Crazy/nuts” and the like but aside from that they did a really good job of keeping the crowd entertained, including Rick jumping into the crowd at the end of their set. Never having seen these guys live before and only hearing a handful of their songs on the radio I was pleasantly surprised at how many good songs they have and how well they played them in a live setting.

It was obvious that most people were at Uproar to see Staind, Godsmack and Shinedown. With each successive band the crowd grew and became louder and increasingly animated as singers for each band demanded people raise their fists and “make some noise”. The only band that refrained from asking anything from the crowd was Staind.

Staind knocked out a great set to be sure but other than guitarist Mike Mushok the feeling coming from the stage was almost somber. Aaron Lewis looked more like a truck driver on stage belting out their tunes with his guitar slung across his chest rather than a singer listed as one of heavy metal’s all-time top 100 vocalists from “Hit Parader”. He may not move around a whole lot on stage but the man can sing and he had the crowd singing along with him song after song.

Although seeing Staind, Godsmack and Shinedown on the same stage is in itself a highlight, Staind performed the first of three true highlights of the night when Aaron Lewis and guitarist Mike Mushok stood alone on stage and performed “Something To remind You”. It was a simple gesture, but one that shows how truly diverse Staind can be.

Godsmack chose not to go the simple route, hitting the stage with an explosive set and waking the still growing crowd the fuck up. Every song they played had the crowd growing wilder and louder and Sully ate it up but he still demanded more…and the crowd gave it to him.

They played an excellent set that could almost be called perfection. Standing on stage, looking just a bit like a metal version of Bruce Springsteen, Sully’s low, guttural growl meshed perfectly with the distorted crunch of the guitar while the bass and drums sent tremors up from the ground and through the legs before settling in the chest where the low end vibrated incessantly. “Voodoo” was played especially well and with the red overhead lights shining on the band there was an almost eerie, mystic feeling in the air.

Godsmack barreled through half of their set and then Shannon Larkin’s drum riser slowly moved to the front while another drum kit entered the stage slowly

from the right. Shannon lit into a pulse pounding drum solo with Sully banging away on the bongos on the other set before going into a synchronized drum solo. Every hit of every drum was perfectly synchronized and they even managed to throw their sticks into the air and catch them in synch. They finished the solo to thunderous applause and cheering before going right back into their set. This, my friends, was the second highlight of the night and it kicked ass.

After an hour long set of kick ass music Godsmack ended their set with “I Stand Alone” with the crowd joining in on the song in full force. Sully egged the crowd on even more saying that they had played in front of some pretty kick ass crowds so Denver better be loud. Denver obliged, and Godsmack ended their set to a deafening applause that didn’t die down until long after Godsmack was off stage.

Godsmack on stage at Uproar Festival in Englewood, CO

Once Godsmack was off stage I expected the curtain to come down the way it had between the Staind set and Godsmack’s set but the curtain never fell and we got to watch all the stage hands get the stage ready for Shinedown. It was pretty cool to watch them put up the ramps and get everything situated for the Shinedown set but it did take away from the mystique and anticipation of waiting for the curtain to rise up revealing the new stage set.

Shinedown hasn’t been around as long as Godsmack but they hit the stage like true headliners. If the crowd wasn’t all the way awake after the Godsmack set they were definitely awake by the time the last notes of “Sound Of Madness” were ringing in the air.

It was just a bit odd that they opened their set with “Sound Of Madness” which I would have figured to be a closing song, especially since it’s all over the radio

right now, but neither did they close with “45” or “Enemies” which would have been my next two guesses for closing tunes. Instead they rocked through a set that started out hard and fast and slowed down a bit the further into the set they got. And the further into the set they went the more theatric Brent Smith became.

If you have ever seen Shinedown in concert you know exactly what I’m talking about. Brent tends to speak as though he is an actor in a Shakespearian play. He also says “If you will” a lot as in, “If you will please allow me”, or “If you will please put your fists/lighters in the air”. But that’s okay because Shinedown songs are all about the meaning anyway and Brent’s attitude and demeanor on stage match the songs almost perfectly.

Brent can come off as an emotional fella and at no part of the night was that truer than when Brent and guitarist Jason Todd seemed to magically appear in the middle of the crowd as the first chords to “Simple Man” were strummed. It was just the two of them out there pouring their heart and soul into that old Lynyrd Skynyrd classic and it sounded beautiful. It got even more impressive as thirteen thousand people sang the chorus with lighters and cell phones held high swaying back and forth.

Shinedown definitely blew through an energetic set like a modern day Motley Crue, complete with tons of pyro and a stage presence that usually comes with years of headlining, ending their set with a bang (literally) as flames, pops and pyro went off one after another with a complete shower of sparks curtaining down the back of the stage.

All in all it was a killer show but there were problems with the set times. Unfortunately, because of time constraints and noise ordinances in Greenwood Village, both the main stage and the Ernie Ball stage had acts going on at the same time making it impossible to catch every band on the bill. And because the stages were a fair distance a part from one another running back and forth between the two was not practical. So it ended up being better to just hang at one stage for the duration and enjoy the show on that stage.

That’s what I did, and although I would have liked to have seen Candlelight Red and P.O.D. I stuck to the main stage and listened to four hours of kick ass rock n roll by four great bands.